U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Sunday that he’s about to make good on a threat to revoke millions in federal funds for California because he says the state is illegally issuing commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens.
In an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” Duffy said California Gov. Gavin Newsom has refused to comply with U.S. Department of Transportation rules that require the state to stop issuing such licenses and review those already issued.
“So, one, I’m about to pull $160 million from California,” Duffy said. “And, as we pull more money, we also have the option of pulling California’s ability to issue commercial driver’s licenses.”
Newsom’s press office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the matter Sunday, but California has defended its practices previously. When Duffy threatened to revoke funds last month, a spokesperson for the governor dismissed the attack and noted that commercial license holders from California have a significantly lower rate of crashes than the national average and the Texas average, which is the only state with more licensed commercial drivers.
Last month, the Transportation Department tightened commercial driver’s license requirements for noncitizens after three fatal crashes that officials said were caused by immigrant truck drivers. Only three specific classes of visa holders will be eligible for CDLs under the new rules and states must verify an applicant’s immigration status in a federal database. The licenses will be valid for up to one year unless the applicant’s visa expires sooner.
Duffy said last month that California should never have issued 25% of 145 licenses investigators reviewed. He cited four California licenses that remained valid after the driver’s work permit expired — sometimes years after. The state had 30 days to come up with a plan to comply or lose funding.
A nationwide commercial driver’s license audit began after officials say a driver in the country illegally made a U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people. The audit found licenses that were issued improperly in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Washington.
Duffy said Sunday that California has unlawfully issued tens of thousands of these licenses to noncitizens.
“So you have 60,000 people on the roads who shouldn’t have licenses,” Duffy said. “They’re driving fuel tankers, they’re driving school buses, and we have seen some of the crashes on American roadways that come from these people who shouldn’t have these licenses.”
Duffy said earlier this month that he would withhold $40 million from California because it is the only state that is failing to enforce English language requirements for truckers. California defended its practices in a formal response to the Transportation Department, but federal officials were not satisfied.
The investigation launched after the Florida crash found what Duffy called significant failures in the way California is enforcing rules that took effect in June after one of President Trump’s executive orders. California had issued the driver a commercial license, but these English rules predate the crash.
1 of 2 | YouTube TV (San Bruno, Calif., headquarters pictured in 2018) has more than 10 million subscribers and is the nation’s largest Internet-based television subscription service and is using that status to demand carriage fees that are lower than market levels for the Disney-owned channels.
File Photo by John G. Mabanglo/EPA
Oct. 24 (UPI) — YouTube TV subscribers might lose access to several popular Disney-owned networks if a deal is not reached with the Google-owned streaming service by Thursday.
Officials for Disney gave Google until midnight on Oct. 30 to reach an agreement or lose access to all Disney-owned content on YouTube TV.
If a deal is not made, YouTube TV subscribers would lose access to all ESPN programming, FX, ABC News, local ABC channels, the Disney Channel, NatGeo and other popular networks owned by Disney until a deal is made.
“Google’s YouTube TV is putting their subscribers at risk of losing the most valuable networks they signed up for,” a Disney spokesperson told Deadline in a prepared statement.
“This is the latest example of Google exploiting its position at the expense of their customers,” the statement continued.
“We invest significantly in our content and expect our partners to pay fair rates that recognize that value.”
If that content is lost, YouTube TV would give subscribers a $20 credit if the Disney-owned content providers go dark for an extended period, as reported by Variety.
YouTube TV has more than 10 million subscribers and is the nation’s largest Internet-based television subscription service and is using that status to demand carriage fees that are lower than market levels for the Disney-owned channels.
The current deal between Disney and YouTube TV ends on Thursday, which could deprive YouTube TV subscribers of one of the largest carriers of sports, including the NFL, college football and basketball, NBA and NHL contests.
The contract dispute with Disney is the fifth this year for YouTube TV, which also has negotiated new deals with the Fox Corp., NBCUniversal, and Paramount Global, which now is known as Paramount Skydance.
YouTube TV failed to reach an agreement with TelevisaUnivision and stopped offering its Univision and related channels from the YouTube TV lineup on Oct. 1.
Ontario to stop running advertisement featuring voice of US President Ronald Reagan saying that trade tariffs were a bad idea.
Published On 25 Oct 202525 Oct 2025
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The Canadian province of Ontario has said it will pull an anti-tariff advertisement featuring former United States President Ronald Reagan’s voice, which prompted current US leader Donald Trump to scrap all trade talks with Canada.
Less than 24 hours later, Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford said he was suspending the advertisement after talking to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney about the spiralling row with Washington.
“In speaking with Prime Minister Carney, Ontario will pause its US advertising campaign effective Monday so that trade talks can resume,” Ford said in a post on X.
Ford added, however, that he had told his team to keep airing the advertisement during two baseball World Series games this weekend, in which Canada’s Toronto Blue Jays will face the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The advertisement used quotes from a radio address on trade that Reagan delivered in 1987, in which he warned against ramifications that he said high tariffs on foreign imports could have on the US economy.
Reagan is heard in the advertisement saying that “high tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars”, a quote that matches a transcript of his speech on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library’s website.
Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses. We’ve achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels. I’ve directed my team to keep putting our…
The Ronald Reagan Foundation wrote on X on Thursday that the Ontario government had used “selective audio and video” and that it was reviewing its legal options.
An Al Jazeera analysis of the words used in the advertisement found that while it spliced together different parts of the 1987 speech by Reagan, it also appeared sincere to the meaning of Reagan’s message: that tariffs, if wielded as an economic weapon, must be used only sparingly and for a short time, or they can hurt Americans.
President Trump did not immediately react to the Ontario premier’s decision to pull the advertisement.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told reporters that Trump had made his “extreme displeasure” known and was expected to respond later to news of the advertisement’s impending removal.
A senior US official said that Trump would probably encounter Carney at a dinner on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea on Wednesday.
“They will likely see each other,” the official told the AFP news agency.
In his original social media post announcing the launch of the advertising campaign featuring Reagan’s voice, Ontario’s Ford says, “Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada.”
It’s official: Ontario’s new advertising campaign in the U.S. has launched.
Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada. The way to prosperity is by working together.
There were empty seats before West Ham took on Brentford in their London derby. And plenty during the game. And even more so as the game drew to a close.
The fans who were left booed their team off after a truly miserable 2-0 defeat that could easily have been 5-0.
These are toxic times at London Stadium, with some fans staying away in a protest against the running of the club.
New Hammers boss Nuno Espirito Santo – yet to win after three games – admits the players have to work hard to get the fans back onside.
There was no sugar-coating this performance by the head coach with his after-match verdict.
“Not good enough. Poor,” said the Portuguese, who was managing his first West Ham home game since replacing Graham Potter, after two away trips.
“Fairly Brentford won the game, they were the better team.
“I think we are all concerned. You can see our own fans are concerned. Concern becomes anxiety, becomes silence. That anxiety passes to the players. We have a problem.
“It’s understandable. It’s up to us to change. The fans need to see something that pleases them and they can support us and give us energy.
“I understand it, I understand it totally, and I respect it. It’s up to us, it’s up to us to change it. We are the people who have to pull the fans back together.”
West Ham remain 19th, with just four points from their opening eight games. They are in action in the next Premier League game too, visiting Leeds on Friday.
Nuno told BBC Sport: “It’s a challenge for all of us. It’s up to us to change the momentum and bring our fans back to support us. In four days’ time we need a big improvement.”
Whereas the 2024 final was a tense and a low scoring affair, Hull KR flipped that script on its head with this year’s war of attrition.
Gone was the caginess of last year. And nerves? What nerves? This was a side made for the occasion, that knew they were on the cusp of greatness and took their opportunity.
Yet it might not have been that way as they were off the pace in the opening stages, and were lucky not to fall behind when they failed to pick up French on the turnover prior to his score being chalked off.
Other than that if they seemed unnerved by the occasion, knowing they were 80 minutes from a history-making treble, they did not seem to show it.
Much had been said in the build-up to the game about Hull KR’s recent and distant past – whether that is relegation in the Million Pound Game in 2016 or finishing bottom of Super League in 2020.
Indeed, outside of some second-tier honours, you had to go back 40 years to the last time the Robins reigned supreme.
Bolstered by the retiring Waerea-Hargreaves – who almost missed the game through suspension prior to KR’s successful appeal this week – and Micky McIlorum, they soon carved open Wigan and never looked back.
Robins talisman Lewis has gone from strength to strength in recent seasons but, much like his team, this feels like the moment in his career where he truly came alive.
But this was a team performance. It was not won by individual moments of brilliance.
It was a display befitting a treble-winning side and masterminded by an elite coach in Willie Peters.
Hull KR have got better every season under Peters’ tutelage and, on this evidence, it makes you wonder if they could be even more formidable in 2026.
Seattle led 85-80 with 2:47 to play but Hamby scored five points and Jackson four in an 11-0 closing run to pull the Sparks within 1½ games of the Storm and Indiana for the final two playoff spots. Seattle missed its last five shots.
Kelsey Plum added 14 points for the Sparks (19-20) and Rae Burrell had 11. Hamby had 11 rebounds as the Sparks dominated the boards 37-23. The also had a 60-30 advantage on points in the paint.
Nneka Ogwumike had 21 points on five first half three-pointers and two second half three-point plays for the Storm (22-20). Skylar Diggins also had 21 points and Ezi Magbegor added 11.
Gabby Williams had two baskets and an assist to fuel a 10-0 run for the Storm, who led 25-20 after one quarter.
Ogwumike had three three-pointers in less than a minute, making her five for five, for a 36-25 lead 3½ minutes into the second quarter. The Storm had six threes in the quarter, with Erica Wheeler’s in the closing seconds making it 53-39 at the half.
Sparks guard Kelsey Plum, left, drives to the basket in front of Seattle guard Erica Wheeler during the first half Monday.
(Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
Diggins opened the second half with a three for a 17-point lead, but the Sparks hit their first five shots and were 12 for 17 in the quarter. The final shot was a buzzer-beating one-handed three-pointer by Jackson from beyond the top of the key to cut the Storm’s lead to 73-68 entering the fourth quarter.
The Sparks play at second-place Atlanta on Wednesday and Friday. The Storm are home against New York on Friday.
Five jockeys have been banned for 10 days after they failed to pull up in a chaotic flat race at Windsor where a blindfolded loose horse crashed into a plastic running rail.
The five-furlong handicap for apprentice jockeys at 16:52 BST on Monday featured a field of seven, but the result was declared void following a false start.
Master Zack, trained by Martin Dunne, was blindfolded to go into the stalls but reared up just before the gates opened.
Jockey Ryan Kavanagh remained in the stalls but riderless Master Zack set off with his vision obscured by the blindfold.
The three-year-old then veered to the right and crashed into a running rail before being caught with no major injuries reported.
Jockeys Tommie Jakes, Jack Doughty, Jack Dace, Taryn Langley and Alec Voikhansky all completed the course on their respective mounts but according to chief stipendiary steward Richard Westropp, ignored requests to stop.
Westropp said: “Our footage is very clear, the recall man is stood in the middle of the track and blowing his whistle. I think all the procedures were followed correctly.”
All five jockeys will have the opportunity to lodge an appeal.
The latest embarrassment is LA28 chair Casey Wasserman, the man tasked with making sure the 2028 Summer Olympics are a massive success. At a news conference this week announcing that President Trump will head a federal Olympics task force, Wasserman offered L.A. a giant whoopie cushion.
With Wasserman at his left side, Trump vowed to bring L.A. “back stronger than ever.” On Trump’s right was a rash of L.A. haters, some of whom played a prominent role in Southern California’s summer of deportations, including Vice President JD Vance and Department of Homeland Security head Kristi Noem. Not present, but hailed by Trump during the presser as an “MVP candidate,” was Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who has made it his life’s mission to crush the multicultural metropolis that birthed him.
So what did Wasserman, a prominent Democratic donor who in recent months has thrown some cash at Republican committees, do in front of people who want to rain holy hell on his hometown?
He praised Trump’s “support” of the L.A. Olympics as “truly extraordinary” and gifted him a set of medals from the 1984 Games hosted by the city. If that wasn’t groveling enough, Wasserman was grinning after Trump joked about not using an autopen to sign the executive order creating the task force — a jab at President Biden. It was more bricks on the foundation Wasserman has been laying since January, when he met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
I haven’t seen such a suck-up since the last time I vacuumed my dad’s pool.
The federal government was always going to play a role in providing security for the 2028 Olympics, just as it has for previous Games in the U.S. But Trump, as the head of the task force, now gets to personally oversee our own siege.
When asked by a reporter if he would deploy the military to L.A. the way he did this summer, Trump responded, “We’ll do anything necessary to keep the Olympics safe, including using our National Guard or military, OK?”
With the Games happening in a presidential election year, Trump would love nothing more than to traipse around an L.A. radically transformed by his deportation blitzkrieg to proclaim his mission accomplished and broadcast his conquest to the world.
That’s why L.A. needs to withdraw from hosting the Olympics — the sooner the better.
Trump’s news conference, where he also called Mayor Karen Bass “not very competent,” looked like a preview of what we can expect in the lead-up to the Games. Hey, maybe the president will fall in love with the city over the next three years — and maybe Miller’s bald pate will grow hair worthy of Samson. But history has shown that no amount of puckering up to Trump will deter him from his goals — and a long-standing one is to humiliate blue L.A. at every chance.
Angelenos: Do ustedes really want to give Trump and his goon squad more chances to make life miserable for y’all? You don’t stand idly by as your sworn enemy assumes even more power to mess with you — you toss that problem elsewhere if you can. And you definitely don’t entrust kiss asses like Wasserman — I’m still not sure what he did to deserve his powerful LA28 gig, except being the grandson of the late Hollywood mogul Lew Wasserman — with calming down someone like Trump. That’s like giving a rich kid a Super Soaker and telling him to water the Huntington Library gardens.
Mayor Karen Bass speaks at an event with local leaders in front of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2024.
Indeed, few Olympics ever turn a profit. The organizing committee behind last year’s Paris Games claimed to have brought in about $30 million — which isn’t bad, but it’s just 3% of the nearly billion-dollar budget deficit that the city of L.A. faced at the beginning of the year.
Expecting the Olympics to be a financial and spiritual salvation for the city betrays Angelenos’ lack of trust in their ability to save themselves. Nevertheless, an executive for the tourism group Visit California said at a state Senate committee hearing last month that hosting the Games would present a “refreshed global image of California as the most welcoming destination in the nation.”
Spare me the PR pablum. The city doesn’t need a multibillion-dollar ad campaign to let the world know how cool it is or make it believe in itself. It needs people committed to solving problems for those who have to live with them daily — not for tourists and visiting athletes.
Supporters will whine that pulling out of the Olympics at this point is a huge inconvenience and will wreck L.A.’s global standing. But withdrawing from a commitment to host a huge sporting event isn’t unprecedented. Denver dumped the 1976 Winter Olympics three years and three months before they were set to open, and its reputation came out just fine. Mexico hosted the 1986 World Cup after Colombia pulled out three years earlier.
By passing on the Olympics, L.A. officials can set aside their concerns about whether producing a month’s worth of seven Super Bowls a day, as Wasserman loves to boast, will strain city resources. Wasserman and his band of the best and the brightest can focus on what L.A. really needs, not how to transform SoFi Stadium into an aquatics center.
And if LA28 throws a snit fit over the move? Well, then you know how truly committed they were to bettering L.A. in the first place.
I write this columna as a huge Olympics fan who watches the opening ceremony every four years, the Games’ problems be damned. I have vague but fond memories of the 1984 Games and clearly remember the Sam the Olympic Eagle lunchbox I toted around in first grade. I was looking forward to trying to score tickets to the swimming events for my wife, who was a competitive backstroker at University High in Irvine, and me.
But I don’t want my money going toward something that Trump will use to bolster his noxious legacy. I’m not going to cheer on Wasserman as he chums up Trump while la migracontinues to terrorize L.A., possibly for months, if not years. I don’t want to support an event where footage of an occupied L.A. might be as front and center as the Coliseum or badminton.
A Coronation Street star was due to appear at London Film and Comic-Con this weekend, but pulled out due to a family emergency
Coronation Street star concerns fans as they pull out of event after family emergency(Image: UKTV)
Coronation Street star Craig Charles concerned fans after he pulled out of his scheduled appearance at London Film and Comic-Con this weekend. The 60-year-old actor is best known for playing Lloyd Mullaney for a decade on the long-running soap, but was due to appear at the event for his Red Dwarf character, Dave Lister.
The star was due to appear alongside Red Dwarf co-stars Danny John-Jules, Robert Llewellyn and Hattie Hayridge. Taking to their Facebook page, London Film and Comic-Con wrote: “We contacted Craig at 9am to be told that due to a family emergency, he would not be in until 11am. At 11.30am we spent 20 minutes knocking on his hotel room door where there was no answer.
The organiser’s confirmed Craig Charles wouldn’t be at the event(Image: ITV)
“His Red Dwarf colleagues were able to contact him at 12.30, where he confirmed he was ill and unable to attend. These are the facts.
“The Group shot will go ahead with Danny, Robert and Hattie, and ticket holders will receive an automatic £60 refund to allow for the change of lineup. If anybody does not want the group shot, any unused tickets will automatically be refunded after the show.”
Not long after the post was shared, Craig took to his X/Twitter to apologise to fans, writing: “I’d just like to say sorry to showmasters and the fans at comicon. I made it to the hotel but woke up at 3 this morning with stomach pains.
He played Dave Lister on sci-fi comedy, Red Dwarf(Image: BBC/Grant Naylor Productions)
“I then proceeded to be violently ill for hours. Not a pretty sight. I tried to see if it would wear off but at 10 am I called it off and came back to Manchester.
“I’m feeling slightly better now, and I’m drinking lots of water and electrolytes. Again sorry for the cancellation and I look forward to next time.”
Fans rushed to the comment section to share their support, with one fan posting: “Hope you feel better.
“You don’t have anything to apologise for trust me someone that just got food poisoning two days ago I know exactly what you mean by coming down with something very quickly.”
Another concerned fans posted: “Take care of yourself. I’ve been watching you as Dave Lister since I was a child, Red Dwarf was and is still my favorite show.
“Lister inspired my love for curry and good tunes. It may be sad, but you were the closest thing I had to a father figure. Love from America, my guy.”
One commented: “As long as you’re on the mend that’s the main thing.” Red Dwarf is a sci-fi comedy that aired between 1988 and 1999, which follows technician Dave Lister, who awakens after being suspended animation for three million years to find that he is the last living human and that he’s alone on the mining spacecraft.
“Why did BBC not pull plug on vile chants?” asks the Daily Express after the broadcaster aired punk duo Bob Vylan’s chants of “death, death to the IDF” in a livestream of Glastonbury Festival. “Both the broadcaster and the music festival faced widespread condemnation,” it writes. A BBC spokesperson previously said some of the comments made were “deeply offensive” and they had issued a warning on screen about “very strong and discriminatory language”. There are no plans to make the performance available on iPlayer, they added.
“BBC chiefs ‘should face charges’ over Glastonbury” reads the headline on the front page of the Daily Mail. It quotes Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp who said that the BBC “appears to have broken the law”. A shot of the British women’s tennis pair also graces the front page as the Mail asks if Emma Radacanu and Katie Boulter will “ace it for Britain at SW19?”
The Daily Telegraph also leads with Bob Vylan, quoting Philp who says the “hate rapper ‘must be treated like Connolly'”. A failure to do so would be “a clear example of two-tier justice under Sir Keir Starmer”, he said. Lucy Connolly received a 31-month prison sentence after admitting inciting racial hatred in a social media post after the Southport killings.
There is “no excuse for BBC hate” writes The Sun, which also leads on the Glastonbury controversy. The paper quotes the prime minister saying “the BBC needs to explain how these scenes came to be broadcast”.
The Metro says Health Secretary Wes Streeting has also “waded into” the row after the Israeli embassy called the chants “inflammatory and hateful”. It reports Streeting condemned the chants and told the embassy to “get your own house in order in terms of the conduct of your own citizens and the settlers in the West Bank”.
Sir Keir faces a “backbench showdown despite rowing back over welfare bill” writes the Financial Times. Today, the PM will attempt a “last-ditch bid to woo” Labour rebels, while the FT reports changes to the bill have reduced government savings from £5bn to about £2bn. The uncertainty of a vote on its outcome is “highly unsusual” and suggests “tensions and bad blood within the Labour party”, it writes. Also on the front page, a Cambridge laboratory is working on a “biological computer” made of 200,000 human brain cells they have grown.
The Times goes with the “PM battles to stave off revolt” on the welfare cuts. The Times also runs with the story of the BBC airing Bob Vylan’s IDF chants saying the boss has been told to “get a grip or quit”. The paper co-ordinates with Sir Rod Stewart’s Glastonbury suit to announce “Wimbledon begins today!”
“Rebel Labour whip calls for more welfare concessions” headlines The Guardian. Vicky Foxcroft, who resigned as whip over the bill, tells the paper the government must work with disabled people on changes and publish a review.
“NHS weight-loss jabs” will now come “from your pharmacy”, reports the i Paper, as part of the government’s new “obesity plan”. The Health Secretary Wes Streeting “wants everyone who is clinically obese to get jabs on NHS if they need them”.
It is “meltdown Monday” says the Daily Star as a “2000 mile-wide 35C heat bubble sparks beach dash”.
“Heat is on” declares The Daily Mirror as reports Monday is set to be the “hottest day of the year”.
While Sir Rod Stewart’s performance in the Legends slot at Glastonbury features on many front pages, it is the previous night’s calls by the punk group Bob Vylan for “death to the IDF” that dominate the coverage.
The Sun quotes the prime minister as saying the BBC needs to explain how scenes of “appalling hate speech” were broadcast. The Daily Express asks why the BBC did not pull the plug on “vile chants”. The Corporation says a warning was shown on screen, and the performance will not be available on demand.
The Daily Mail says the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, has called for BBC chiefs to face charges. The Daily Telegraph says Philp also believes the singer who led the chants should himself be prosecuted for inciting violence. But writing in the Times, the former head of BBC Television, Danny Cohen, says it is the crowds themselves that the Jewish communuity will be disturbed by most. “A mass display of violent intent against Jews took place at Glastonbury. Murderous hate was celebrated,” he observes, concluding that “racism against Jews is now the only permissible form of racism”.
Another big story is the forthcoming parliamentary vote on the government’s proposed welfare reforms. The Financial Times says the prime minister is still facing a backbench showdown, despite having rowed back on parts of the bill. The Guardian says Vicky Foxcroft – the MP who resigned as a government whip over the cuts – believes the concessions do not yet go far enough. The Daily Mirror argues that whatever changes are made, the most vulnerable must not be made to pay the price.
The i Paper’s chief political commentator, Kitty Donaldson, writes: “You’d be forgiven for thinking Labour’s first year in office has been a carousel of disasters, from freebies to winter fuel and its latest U-turn on welfare reforms.” Listing what she regards as successes in health, education and housing, she notes that the prime minister has “benefited from weak political opposition, which can’t be the case forever. Now his Government needs to avoid even more self-inflicted errors”.
The “heat is on”, says the Daily Mirror as it looks ahead to what it expects to be “the hottest day of the year.” The Daily Star talks of “Meltdown Monday“. With the tennis championships about to begin at Wimbledon, the Daily Express headlines its story “Game, Sweat, Match”.
The 6-3 ruling will have an impact nationwide because it empowers parents who object to books or lessons at school.
“A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses a very real threat of undermining the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill,” said Justice Samuel A. Alito, speaking for the conservative majority.
Parents in Montgomery County, Md., sued over new LGBTQ+ storybooks that were used in kindergarten and elementary school classes.
This clash between progressive educators and religiously conservative parents moved quickly to the Supreme Court after judges refused to intervene.
Alito said the parents were entitled to a preliminary injunction that would require the schools to “notify them in advance” when one of the disputed storybooks would be used in their child’s class.
In ruling for the parents, the court did not say parents have a right to change the lessons and books that were used at school. They could, however, choose to have their children temporarily removed from those classes.
The court’s three liberals dissented.
“Today’s ruling ushers in … new reality, “ Justice Sonia Sotomayor said. “Casting aside long-standing precedent, the Court invents a constitutional right to avoid exposure to subtle themes contrary to the religious principles that parents wish to instill in their children. Given the great diversity of religious beliefs in this country, countless interactions that occur every day in public schools might expose children to messages that conflict with a parent’s religious beliefs. The result will be chaos for this Nation’s public schools.”
Eric Baxter, senior counsel at Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, called the decision “a historic victory for parental rights in Maryland and across America. Kids shouldn’t be forced into conversations about drag queens, Pride parades, or gender transitions without their parents’ permission.”
He appealed the case to the Supreme Court last fall.
“Today, the Court restored common sense and made clear that parents — not government —have the final say in how their children are raised,” he said.
Civil rights advocates condemned the ruling.
“All students deserve to feel safe and welcome in their classrooms. Educators should prepare them for the world we live in and promote curiosity, acceptance, and respect for all people. Yet today’s decision by six justices encourages open discrimination toward LGBTQ+ children and families and favors ignorance and censorship over inclusion,” said Liz King, director for education equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Nearly every state, including Maryland and California, has a law that allows parents to opt out their children from sex education classes.
But Montgomery County officials said this state rule applied to older students and to sex education, but not to reading lessons for elementary school children.
When the new LGBTQ+ storybooks were introduced in the fall of 2022, parents were told their young children could be removed from those lessons. But when “unsustainably high numbers” of children were absent, the school board revoked the opt-out rule.
In reaction, a group of Muslim, Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox parents filed a suit in federal court, seeking an order that would allow their children to be removed from class during the reading lessons.
A federal judge and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to intervene.
Those judges said the “free exercise” of religion under the 1st Amendment protects people from being forced to change their conduct or their beliefs but it does not shield people from views they oppose.
Lawyers for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty appealed to the Supreme Court.
They said the school board had “mandated new ‘inclusive’ storybooks that celebrate gender transitions, explore Pride parades and introduce same-sex romance between young children.”
At first, parents had been promised they would be notified and could opt their children out when the storybooks were read, they said. But that promise was revoked.
“If parents did not like what was taught to their elementary school kids, their only choice was to send them to private school or to home school,” they said.
The show is set to end after series 15 in 2026, with the cast already filming their final scenes.
1
Call The Midwife has been axed by the BBCCredit: BBC
The Daily Star reports that bosses want the show to “go out on a high”.
A source told the publication: “After years of drama and countless births,Call The Midwife is coming to an end.The team have decided it’s time to draw the show to a close and bow out.
“This is the last we’ll see of these much-loved characters. Storylines will tie up a lot of loose ends.”
The show will return to screens in January 2026 for the final run of episodes.
The star has also appeared in the Starz TV series Heelz, and Young Rock, where he played the legendary WWE Superstar, Stone Cold Steve Austin.
However, he’s had to pull out of future shows for the WildKat wrestling promotion as he was rushed to hospital with a serious stomach illness.
The star posted a long essay onto his Instagram account which accompanied a selfie from his hospital bed.
He wrote: “Yesterday, I took my 1st (hopefully last) ambulance ride for the 1st time in 44years.
“That being said, this isn’t a pitty post but I have some unfortunate news that I would have preferred to be private about, but, as a performer I have to be transparent to my fans who are expecting to see me at several upcoming events Im scheduled for.
“For a few weeks now I was having some stomach issues that was causing me pain & discomfort.
“I thought it was due to me excessively eating some foods I don’t normally eat. So, I cleaned up my diet and thought it was business as usual.
“As days went on, I just tolerated the pain and went on about my normal life of training hard,Weights in the morning, Conditioning in the afternoon etc.”
Ric Flair diagnosed with skin cancer as WWE legend, 76, reveals heartbreaking news
However, the star admitted that the pain became too much to bear and some of the other symptoms started getting worse.
He continued: “On Thursday night of this week I felt pretty rough physically, like I had a virus.
“I spent the night with terrible hot/cold flashes, sweating profusely, head pounding, and some vomiting.
“I toughed it out all night, and by Friday morning, I felt much better. So I decided to rest most of the day and rehydrate,etc.
We went to the ER. After some test, ER informed me that it was very good that I came in and didn’t wait longer.
Luke HawxInstagram
“Saturday morning, I woke up with some discomfort but decided to crush a workout the gym.
“As the day went on, my wife asked to go to the Dr because she wasn’t comfortable with how I was feeling and how long I was feeling that way for.
“I obviously argued against it and told her I was fine and it would go away eventually. She asked me to call one of my Dr friends to get their opinion, so I did that.”
He added:”My friend said he suggested I go get looked at asap, so I knew that was probably best and safest even though I wanted to continue to tough it out.
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“We went to the ER. After some test, ER informed me that it was very good that I came in and didn’t wait longer.
“Then they informed me that I needed to go into Surgery and I wouldn’t be going home. I was honestly heartbroken to hear this news.”
“I quickly called to my surgeon, who is a good friend of mine and he jumped on it right away. A few hours later, I was in Surgery. Surgery was successful and I am now recovering.”
Dwayne Johnson’s fortune explained
The wrester-turned movie star is worth a whole lot of money.
Dwayne Johnson‘s net worth has increased substantially since he began his acting career in 2001.
At the time, he had a net worth of $2M (around £3M today).
Now 21 years later, his net worth has increased to an estimated $800M (£626M).
Dwayne’s initial wealth came from competing in wrestling tournaments, with him earning $1million in 1999 (around £1.5M today).
However, his bank balance is now boosted by his acting career, TV appearances, merchandise, and his newly founded tequila company.
He launched his spirit brand, Teremana tequila, in 2020 and oversaw the development of the product while it was made in Mexico.
“It took 113 distillations to get to this point,” he said in his May 2021 interview on The Today Show. “Everything is handcrafted, handmade. Copper pot stills, brick ovens.”
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He is known for playing the legendary WWE Superstar, Stone Cold Steve AustinCredit: Getty
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This was on Young Rock, the show that detailed the journey of The RockCredit: Getty
